The original title of this article as I saw it was “Millennials are richer than their boomer parents. Here's why they love to complain anyway.” This line now appears as the subtitle.
I was curious what HN readers think of the idea or evidence that millennials are actually richer than boomers, since everything I hear in casual conversations is about how boomers hoarded everything and millennials are worse off, due to boomers and the subprime crisis.
Technically probably true since that class of people see rich and wealth as very different. Having better food/electronics/entertainment is being rich. Having assets that pay out or maintain value forever is wealth.
I saw a comment recently that described the shift to a "consumer economy." Relative to boomers, millennials have increased access to goods and services like high-definition televisions, computers, international travel, and luxury foods (e.g., avocado toast). But in terms of wealth and assets, millennials have reduced or less feasible access to things like home ownership or college degrees (not to mention childcare or healthcare), compared to boomers. Though the causes of this shift are up for debate, it does seem that boomers had an easier path to ownership or growth, while millennials and beyond face more rent-seeking obstacles.
To me that idea is just using technological progress as an excuse. That because we have new inventions that didn't exist before we are all automatically better off.
I think it's of course not so simple, and the abstract of the paper they refer to [0] seems to contradict the Business Insider article. Sure, inflation adjusted median income is up slightly. In addition to this educational costs have exploded, and to earn a median salary it has become necessary to buy in. People under 30 have greater inflation adjusted income, but this is because they rely more on their (boomer) parents. The overall wealth in society has increased dramatically, but the vast majority of gains are going to the outliers.
That is to say, the real conflict isn't between boomers and millennials, it's between billionaires and everyone else. But generational friction is not new, a more common experience, and easy to exploit in media.
I was curious what HN readers think of the idea or evidence that millennials are actually richer than boomers, since everything I hear in casual conversations is about how boomers hoarded everything and millennials are worse off, due to boomers and the subprime crisis.